


Unison

by Get_below_my_line_of_vision



Series: Heart and Soul [2]
Category: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Canon Era, Gen, Javert Lives, Romani Javert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24191098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Get_below_my_line_of_vision/pseuds/Get_below_my_line_of_vision
Summary: Watching Jean Valjean and Cosette talk enthusiastically, Javert gets reminded how lucky he is that he was accepted by the family. He thinks about his past and how he was treated by the world.+ People usually see another person who is the most significant person in their life as glowing light in their first meeting. (You can guess who Javert saw.)
Relationships: Cosette Fauchelevent & Javert, Javert & Jean Valjean
Series: Heart and Soul [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1745938
Kudos: 13





	Unison

**Author's Note:**

> There'll be a sentence long mention of failure in childbirth.

Javert watched Cosette playfully, and lively, chat to her father. Valjean nodded along, interested in her every word. Subconsciously Javert smiled. This type of relationship was what he missed and didn’t know he desired deep down. All his life he deceived himself, that he didn’t need anyone to be close to him, but watching the two he felt such flow of gratitude and love for being accepted into the family.

Ever since his night of despair, Cosette had gotten closer to him. They made progress very quickly that by a couple of weeks, she could be in the same room with him without Valjean while comfortably talking to him. Hugs were very frequent too. Cosette was just overly friendly, a trait he didn’t notice until recently. He was grateful she had forgiven him after all the years of hunting the two of them down.  
He wondered how Cosette could look at the world and see only light. But seeing her excitedly talk about mundane aspects of life with Valjean made him realise the power of kindness from Jean Valjean. Javert had met the Thénardiers briefly and had that family been Cosette’s family, she would've definitely grown up as a different woman. Valjean had been nothing but loving towards his daughter, and she welcomed it. Despite her past, she was open.  
When Valjean and Javert talked about Cosette’s past, Valjean always mentioned how it was Cosette who changed him. That she was the one who made him become a completely new man. He had tried before, but he felt as if he never truly succeeded until he held her in his arms and promised to be the best parent for her.

That type of parent-child relationship was what Javert missed. As uplifting hearing their moving stories, Javert felt a pang in his chest which would not go away. It was the realisation that his life could’ve been completely different. That he could’ve had a life like Cosette’s, or like Valjean’s, had love been able to shine on him. Yet for many years it didn’t. So much so that when Valjean relentlessly showed him love, he ignored it, believing it to be an act. Because no one would be so meaninglessly helpful and compassionate. That was his mistake. He shouldn’t have thought the world was so dark. In the moments of panic, it made him impossible to see any glimmer of light. On that night when he received a part of Valjean’s soul he saw nothing but darkness. There was no one in the streets and he was completely alone.

It wasn’t like that anymore.

But it used to be. Even when he was born he was locked in solitude. His birthplace wasn’t a hospital or a cosy home, it was in a jail. His mother was a fortune-teller, a Romani gypsy. She was caught and imprisoned while pregnant. He was told she begged and begged but no guards let her out, resulting in her giving birth in the concrete room, grabbing onto the bars, screaming in intense pain. He wasn’t told the last part, but that was how he imagined it to be. In fact he was so painful to push out, his mother bled to death. 

He had no father. Nobody claimed him. From his first breath, he was unwanted. He had no soul. He was an Empty.

Having a Soul meant they could be trusted. The more Soul they had, more loved and revered they were. Being classified as an Empty was a death sentence. They roamed the streets like rats, seen as the scum of the earth. As a child, Javert grew in the streets, watching dirty people fight each other for scraps. This was not going to be his fate, he promised himself. He was going to rid these animals.

Rather than despising the system he lived in, he submitted to it, and climbed as much as he could. He became an Inspector, claiming his lack of Soul allowed him to see the world clearly- without the thick filter of love. Through this stance he rose in power, ignoring those who dismissed him.  
Soon the rats in the streets scrambled away from him, in fear of a powerful force. He fulfilled what he wanted yet he felt deserted and void. In fear people scattered in the sight of him. It was as if he was living his life on a loop, forbidden to break the cycle.

Then there was a case of a man who escaped jail. It was his first attempt in which Javert was appointed to track him down. With his dogs, he found the man whose name was Jean Valjean. Others believed it was the dogs which helped them identify the man, but it was different to Javert. When he saw Jean Valjean for the first time, he had to close his eyes because the man was glowing in painfully sharp light. The yellow dug into his eyes, into his brain, not letting him escape the moment.  
He knew what this was and what this meant. Everyone did. This was the light a person was supposed to see when they see the most significant person in their life, whether it be the best influence or the worst.  
Javert was almost brought to his knees as he found the man crouching in the shadows, wanting to sink to the floor.

From then on Valjean tried to escape three more times. And after every attempt was Javert, tracking him down as a dog he was. At that point he was sure Valjean was a disaster- doomed to plague him throughout his life. That was why he shined brighter than the Sun when they met. He was going to ruin his life. He was going to ruin their just society.

As Javert hunted him down through the years he barked and roared at him, threatening him. But Jean Valjean always spoke in a controlled manner, as if he knew he was going to win every confrontation they were in.  
Frustrated and envious, he woke one night wondering who Valjean saw in bright lights. It occurred to him he was so involved about his own life he did not consider what Valjean saw. When they both met he had a terrified face. It was plausible he also saw him in bright lights, understanding what that meant.  
Javert didn’t realise that at this moment he was experiencing empathy, something which was difficult to experience when a person had no Soul. Jean Valjean without having any intentions helped him.  
But Javert didn’t arrive at this revelation until much later.

The past Javert, however, knew he was fixated in hunting the prisoner down because he wanted to prove to others that he wasn’t a nothing ever since he was born. He was better than them. In motivation and in action. He wanted to be seen as valid, something which he later realised he was searching for acceptance in wrong people. He shouldn’t have wanted to be important to those who were not significant to him. He needed validation from those who mattered to him; those he considered family. And that was Valjan and Cosette. Happiness couldn’t even come close to explain the height of joy he felt from finally belonging.


End file.
